Smart Watches: The Next Step in Mobile?

Over the past couple years, an interesting new market has been developing in mobile technology: smart watches. What originally seemed like a short-lived gimmick has begun to emerge as a potential substitute and maybe even a replacement for mobile phones down the road. With Apple releasing their own smart watch in the near future, every major phone maker has now jumped on the smart watch bandwagon. Although the watches were originally pretty basic and had limited features and bulky physique, the competition between the various companies has led to a lot of innovation in tech and appearance over the past few months.

The first really popular smart watch to hit the market was the Pebble watch. It had a very basic design and was controlled with a few physical buttons on the side of the watch. Combining an early entry into the market along with a much cheaper price than the other offerings, the Pebble took off quickly. After seeing this success, it didn't take long for other companies to jump into the mix. Now, there is a large assortment of watches that usually are partnered with a certain brand of phone. For example, Apple's watch will pair with iPhones, LG's with the G series phones, and Samsung with its Galaxy phones. These watches all feature touch screens and a variety of apps that let you message, email, call, view calendars, check the weather, and tons of other features. A few of them even feature cameras and IR blasters that allow you to control electronics like your TV from the watch. Additionally, they can be customized so that they appear just as a normal digital or analog watch would, providing style and function to users.

With the market for watches already taking off and the prices becoming more universally affordable, it is only a matter of time before the smart watch app market explodes. With this in mind, it is also likely that this will open the door to mobile advertising on smart watches. I would be surprised if we don't see a similar rush to the smart phone advertising that occurred over the past few years in the smart watch ranks.